Broadband India Forum (BIF) has welcomed the government’s step to raise the minimum speed of broadband to 2Mbps from 512Kbps.

BIF said that it is unfortunate that as many as 45,180 villages in India do not have any 4G coverage at all.

BIF said India has a long way to go to catch up with major regimes like the US where the regulator (FCC) has prescribed a minimum broadband speed of 25Mbps.

Bangladesh, one of the neighboring countries of India, has prescribed a higher minimum broadband speed of 5Mbps.

2Mbps may not be enough for broadband customers as they need much higher speeds for satisfactory experience in applications viz. telecommuting, file downloading, video conferencing, streaming video – both SD & HD, said TV Ramachandran, President of BIF.